Agribusiness

From the inception of the study, Battelle served as the North Carolina Field Station for 18 years. As one of two field stations, Battelle has been a key player in this study through multiple research phases and activities.

An international customer came to Battelle with a challenge: they needed to develop a co-formulation of two distinct fungicides with stability and efficacy equal to or better than each of the active ingredients alone.

Changing regulations required our client to reformulate an agrochemical fungicide to achieve lower dose rates. In order to reduce the dose rate to fit in with proposed new regulatory limits, our client needed to increase the performance of the active ingredient in their fungicide granule (WG).

An international herbicide company needed to replace an undesirable co-solvent in one of its major combination products. Unfortunately, without it, one of the active ingredients would lose solubility. Might there be an unexplored alternative to the lost ingredient? And if so, could the reformulation maintain chemical and physical stability?

Before making a pesticide or other agrochemical available on the marketplace, agrochemical companies need to fully understand the potential fate of the chemical in the environment. In the case of pesticides, the potential for the chemical to leech into groundwater is of particular concern.

The European Union recently passed new registration requirements for all agrichemical products. Under the new rules, agrichemical companies are now required to evaluate exposure and accumulation in fish in addition to livestock. They now must be able to demonstrate that the bioaccumulation in fish under expected usage scenarios do not threaten fish population levels or present human health risks if the fish are ingested.

In order to prove that a GMO is safe, Agroscience developers need to be able to prove that the new plant does not produce unexpected proteins that could induce an allergic response in susceptible individuals.

An agrochemical company urgently needed to generate missing data in order to meet their product submission deadline. After another lab failed to complete the studies adequately, they contacted Battelle for help.

An agrochemical manufacturer was considering a new Chinese source for their compound. They contacted Battelle for a 5-batch study, which included a request to complete the development and validation of four draft methods for the analysis of the 15 known impurities in the original compound.

Alternative Energy

Pyrolysis bio oil feedstock is one of the most difficult precursors in the world to convert to bio-based fuel. Because pyrolysis uses heat to break down biomass, the resulting oil contains high levels of oxygen and acids and is unstable at the high temperatures used in refinery processing.

The U.S. Air Force needed to better understand the characteristics of bio-based alternative fuels they intended to use as jet fuel in a 50/50 blend with conventional fuels. Bio-based aviation fuel properties—including fuels made by pyrolysis, fermentation, and algae-based oils—were less defined compared to petroleum-based fuels.

Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) is an approved jet fuel used to reduce dependence on petroleum sources. The U.S. Air Force has pioneered the use of SPK in 50/50 fuel blends with petroleum fuels in order to meet a target of acquiring 50% of domestic aviation fuel requirements via green, domestically sourced alternative fuel blends by 2016.

Petroleum-based fuels can be subject to price instability and supply chain disruptions. In order to increase national security, the U.S. Air Force wanted a 100% non-petroleum jet fuel alternative to reduce dependence on petroleum sources.

Demilitarization

The U.S. Army asked Battelle to develop a method for confirming lewisite chemical demilitarization status at Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TODCF) that would safely remove the hazardous agent and ensure the U.S. Army's Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) remains compliant with the provisions and requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Environmental Services

While the individual components behind geologic storage of carbon dioxide are well developed, significant challenges exist in scaling CCS technologies to the level needed to address emissions from a coal-burning power plant.

Poor air quality is an increasingly important issue throughout Latin America, with implications for human health around the region. While many governments recognize the health impacts due to air pollution, they may lack the tools or capacity to understand or mitigate poor air quality.

Severely deteriorated large-diameter sewage pipes present special challenges for maintenance and renewal. Cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) and other emerging technologies offer more cost-effective alternatives to digging up and replacing failing pipelines. However, while CIPP has been used for more than 40 years for some applications, its use in large or technically challenging sites has not been extensively evaluated.

The New York District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needed extensive chemical analysis of dredged materials to support required Green Book testing. The Green Book requires that dredged material undergo extensive material evaluation studies prior to ocean disposal.

When traces of oil are found in water, sediments, or biological tissues, how can you identify the sources? Agencies and oil companies need rapid, accurate and objective data in order to determine where hydrocarbons are coming from and distinguish between an accidental release and natural sources.

Extreme heat, which is exacerbated by the urban heat islands (UHI) effect and climate change, is the leading cause of weather-related mortality in the United States and many other countries. Leveraging NASA funding, Battelle developed a methodology to analyze and visualize urban heat vulnerability in a way that could link science and policy, appropriate for supporting informed city-level policy and management decisions.

Although lead exposure among U.S. children is declining, significant exposure and subsequent effects remain and harm children disproportionately in certain communities. Identifying those communities remains difficult. Battelle developed a blood-lead prediction model that is applicable at the census tract level across the U.S.

Climate change is already having impacts on human health, infrastructure, ecosystems and security worldwide. USAID has recognized the importance of addressing climate change as part of their work, and identified a strong need to integrate climate change considerations into existing programs and projects. Battelle staff helped pioneer the development and delivery of a climate change training course to USAID staff worldwide.

A rural coalfield community was concerned about possible adverse impacts of mining blast sites on local air quality. Mining blast sites are a significant source of particulate matter (PM) and other potentially hazardous emissions.